Today’s podcast features Stephen Calkins, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and former General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”).

President Trump recently fired, without good cause, the two Democratic members of the FTC, leaving only two Republican members as commissioners. He did this even though the FTC Act provides that a commissioner may be fired by the President only for good cause and that the commission is to be governed by a bi-partisan 5-member commission This is the third time in the past few weeks that Trump has fired without good cause democratic members of other federal agencies; the other two being the National Labor Relations Board (The “NLRB”) and the Merit Selection Protection Board (The “MSPB”).… Continue Reading

Citing cutbacks at the federal level, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has launched a new centralized consumer protection hotline, website and email address to make it easier for state residents to report allegations of scams and resolve financial and insurance issues.

Officials said the effort is part of the Shapiro Administration’s initiative to fill a void left by weakened federal consumer protection.… Continue Reading

The short answer is that the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing (whose oral argument is scheduled for May 15 at 10 am) is of immense importance to all stakeholders in the consumer financial services industry. We will explain why that is the case.

The Fourteenth Amendment states:  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”… Continue Reading

The CFPB says it wants to scrap a Biden Administration rule that prohibits credit reporting agencies from including medical debts on credit reports, one of many Biden era rules that the Trump Administration has sought to nullify.

The rule had been scheduled to take effect in March, but U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas, had issued a 90-day stay.… Continue Reading

The House Financial Services Committee has approved its part of the massive budget bill, saving some $1 billion by, among other things, slashing the CFPB’s budget by more than 60%.

The Committee did so by modifying the bureau’s authority to draw funds from the Federal Reserve’s operating budget, limiting the agency to a maximum of 5% of the Fed’s total operating expenses.… Continue Reading

President Trump recently signed an Executive Order entitled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy“ to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also has indicated that it intends to yet again reconsider its disparate impact rule under the Fair Housing Act.… Continue Reading

The two Democratic NCUA board members ousted by President Trump have filed suit, arguing that their firings violated federal law.

Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, naming President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, NCUA Chairman Kyle Hauptman and others as defendants.… Continue Reading

The podcast we are releasing today is part 2 of a re-purposed webinar we produced on March 25 titled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB – Part 4.” As a result of the diminishing impact of the CFPB on enforcing the consumer financial services laws, we expect that void to be filled by state government enforcement agencies and private civil litigation, including class and mass actions.… Continue Reading

The Government Accountability Office has agreed to investigate recent CFPB moves to fire more than 1,400 employees and the impact it and other agency actions have had on the bureau’s ability to operate.

“GAO accepts your request as work that is within the scope of its authority,” A. Nicole Clowers, GAO’s Managing Director, Congressional Relations, wrote in response to a letter from Senate Banking Committee ranking Democrat Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld a temporary injunction issued by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia prohibiting the CFPB from firing more than 1,400 employees, leaving only about 200 employees at the agency.

The order comes as the latest development in a suit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many CFPB employees, and other groups, challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to reduce the agency’s operations.… Continue Reading